Walking with designers

‘Most designers I deal with are arrogant and more concerned with what they are wearing than getting a job right first time.’ This was the gist of a recent conversation with a successful sales rep at one of Australia’s biggest offset print companies.  It is indicative of the mutual hostility which too often clouds the key relationship between label printers and designers.

For label designers, printers often just don’t ‘get it’, or are deliberately obstructive of their efforts to achieve innovative packaging concepts to make things easy for  themselves. For label printers, designers are often seen as indulgent, lacking technical knowledge of the limitations of the print and finishing process, and – yes – arrogant.
We should concede that there are faults on both sides of the divide. Firstly, there are too many designers who do not understand how to handle label-specific  print formats, particularly when they move outside sheetfed offset into roll-fed in-line technologies such as flexography and letterpress with their different ink opacities and coverage characteristics. This can lead to problems with achievab le color gamut, for example, and in the worst case means jobs have to be re-originated by skilled color workers at the repro house or at the converter. Often this work cannot be charged back - for example where the designer  is not the budget holder, or simply refuses to accept that their original design is not printable. Pressure on deadlines  and fear of losing the work means the converter/repro house just do what they have to do to get the job done. It is very rarely that designers ask label printers for advice on how to produce printable work in the first place.

The printer’s sales reps emerges here as a key - and undervalued - resource.  At the very least, the sales rep should be fully conversant with the technical limitations and possibilities of their own print operation, and should be qualified to spot possible problems at an early stage in the specification process. This is not always possible, of course, particularly where the rep is dealing with the design agency’s non-technical account handlers  rather than directly with the designer.

But it is worth making the effort nonetheless. How many reworks could be avoided by reps pointing out things as simple as the different ink laydowns  on a coated and uncoated stock, for example? And what about a more positive role? Unless designers  read magazines like Labels & Labeling, or have previous experience of in-line decorating techniques, you should not assume that they are aware of what this technology can achieve, often at minimal extra cost. Even skilled offset designers can fail to grasp the added value possibilities presented by new press technologies like holographic cold foiling, in-line embossing, reverse side printing, extended gamut ink sets, in-line gravure or on-demand digital converting. So make sure your sales reps tell them!

Interestingly, there are new software tools which could help close the communications gap.

Take as an example tools which make available to designers information held on the converter’s die database. Using these, the designer can work with the actual repeat length and width of the target press. This information will also tell them whether a particular die is in stock, and the lead time/cost implications if it is not. The designer might then choose to modify the label’s dimensions accordingly. Similarly, step & repeat tools could be made available so designers can play games with label formats to get the maximum across the web, or gang jobs together. There are plus-ins to the popular label design programs which will warn a designer if they are exceeding the gamut of the target press

Currently the process of producing final press-ready files involves laborious work for the estimating department trying to interpret the designer’s brief, and results in the often acrimonious exchange of multiple proofs, faxes, phone-calls and emails, wasting time, resources and money which neither party can afford.

So think hard about working on your communication with designers.  It is one of the few areas where great savings can be made and efficiencies gained without significant capital expenditure. But it will involve investing in – and valuing - the skills of your sales reps. - Andy Thomas